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Finnish iPhone Users Underestimate Overpayment

By Tabitha Naylor

Contributing Writer

Commissioned by Alekstra, a new poll of Finnish iPhone (News - Alert) users shows that the average consumer estimates his or her smartphone bill is 11 percent higher than it could be with the optimal plan. For their personal voice, SMS and data usage profile, most consumers believe they have not picked the best possible plan.

However, switching to a new plan would not yield meaningful savings is what most consumers tend to believe.

Nevertheless, by switching to the optimal plan, according to the analysis of 2,000 Finnish iPhone users who have downloaded the Ratemizer application, the average savings achieved are actually 160 Euros per year.

In Finland, this is about 35 percent of the average annual iPhone bill.

It can be assumed that by a fairly substantial margin, Finnish consumers tend to underestimate how much they are overpaying. Considerable differences can be detected between operators for instance, iPhone owners have an annual average savings potential of 254 Euros by using a carrier called TeleFinland.

Most consumers believe they would have to change carriers and deal with various hardships such as termination fees in order to switch to a cheaper plan. On the contrary, Ratemizer application identified 90 percent of the consumers as over-spenders and thus while remaining with the same operator, they could easily change to a substantially cheaper plan.

Image via Shutterstock

This would seem to support the theory floated by several industry observers; in many European countries, the increased complexity of available smartphone plans actually creates a psychological barrier for comparison shopping.

Consumers tend to adopt a hedgehog pose and shy away from the work of serious price analysis as soon as the number of possible phone plans tops one hundred. In recent years, even as European carriers have embraced increased price plan complexity, U.S. carriers who pioneered the trick have actually simplified their plan structures.

Compared to the status quo of 2002, Verizon (News - Alert) and AT&T now look more streamlined than European carriers.